14/06/10
A report on some unwelcome implications of increasing global trade has a particular resonance in Water Saving Week.
The idea of 'embedded' water came to wide public notice over three years ago in 'Hidden Waters, a paper by UK conservation group Waterwise.
Recently the Royal Academy of Engineering* was still begging business and individuals to take it seriously. "The burgeoning demand from developed countries is putting severe pressure on areas already short of water," said Professor Peter Guthrie of Cambridge University.
That demand is for food and other imported goods. Producing a cup of coffee uses 140 litres, a cotton T-shirt 2000. Prof. Guthrie and colleagues are ratcheting up pressure on rich countries to be more water efficient.
The case is already strong, but they are adding a potent mix of humanity and self-interest.
Growing water shortage in developing countries, they imply, will not only prolong the misery of dehydration and disease; as a cause of conflict and chaos, it will hold back economies and disrupt global trade. By importing embedded water at current or increased levels, we put at risk our own food and economic security.
An era of demand management
In the UK we have the policies and capacity to respond.
It’s true that, a few years ago, there were pockets of resistance to the idea that a twin-track, supply and demand, water resources strategy should include a real focus on water efficiency. No longer. We live now in an era of demand management. The last government recognised the critical role of water efficiency in its Future Water strategy. There are no reasons to think the new administration will pull back. Quite the reverse, as the productivity of every resource will be at a premium for years ahead.
The industry is working on hundreds of schemes to help people waste less: metering programmes of a scale inconceivable until recently; tariff trials exploring incentive effects; large-scale retrofit projects for older property. It is now important for the whole sector, including contractors and supply chain, to get involved, whether in new products and systems or joining water efficiency partnerships. For one reason, public support can’t be taken for granted. Southern Water, planning to double meter penetration by 2015, is wisely pulling out all the stops to show why everyone can benefit.
Regulators are keen too. For PR09, Ofwat asked all the companies in England and Wales to write 25-year Strategic Direction Statements. Promoting water efficiency to reduce cost and carbon and tackle water scarcity featured in every one. The Royal Academy of Engineering approves but also finds a weak link in the national effort. "Whilst this is welcome, the regulator has focused, in reality, only on the companies’ investment plans over the next five-year period", it says.
* Global Water Security, April 2010
A version of this article, by Barrie Clarke, appeared in WET News, May 2010
